Rice is an ancient agricultural crop, and remains one of the world's principal food crops. There are two cultivated species of rice: Oryza sativa L., the Asian rice, and O. glaberrima Steud., the African rice. Oryza sativa L. constitutes virtually all of the world's cultivated rice and is the species grown in the United States. Three major rice producing regions exist in the United States: the Mississippi Delta (Arkansas, Mississippi, northeast Louisiana, southeast Missouri), the Gulf Coast (southwest Louisiana, southeast Texas); and the Central Valley of California. See generally U.S. Pat. No. 6,911,589.
Rice is a semiaquatic crop that benefits from flooded soil conditions during part or all of the growing season. In the United States, rice is typically grown on flooded soil to optimize grain yields. Heavy clay soils or silt loam soils with hard pan layers about 30 cm below the surface are typical rice-producing soils, because they reduce water loss from soil percolation. Rice production in the United States can be broadly categorized as either dry-seeded or water-seeded. In the dry-seeded system, rice is sown into a well-prepared seed bed with a grain drill or by broadcasting the seed and incorporating it with a disk or harrow. Moisture for seed germination comes from irrigation or rainfall. Another method of dry-seeding is to broadcast the seed by airplane into a flooded field, and then to promptly drain the water from the field. For the dry-seeded system, when the plants have reached sufficient size (four- to five-leaf stage), a shallow permanent flood of water 5 to 16 cm deep is applied to the field for the remainder of the crop season. Some rice is grown in upland production systems, without flooding.
One method of water-seeding is to soak rice seed for 12 to 36 hours to initiate germination, and then to broadcast the seed by airplane into a flooded field. The seedlings emerge through a shallow flood, or the water may be drained from the field for a short period of time to enhance seedling establishment. A shallow flood is then maintained until the rice approaches maturity. For both the dry-seeded and water-seeded production systems, the fields are drained when the crop is mature, and the rice is harvested 2 to 3 weeks later with large combines.
In rice breeding programs, breeders typically use the same production systems that predominate in the region. Thus, a drill-seeded breeding nursery is typically used by breeders in a region where rice is drill-seeded, and a water-seeded nursery is used in regions where water-seeding prevails.
Rice in the United States is classified into three primary market types by grain size, shape, and endosperm composition: long-grain, medium-grain, and short-grain. Typical U.S. long-grain cultivars cook dry and fluffy when steamed or boiled, whereas medium- and short-grain cultivars cook moist and sticky. Long-grain cultivars have been traditionally grown in the southern states and generally receive higher market prices in the U.S.
Although specific breeding objectives vary somewhat in different regions, increasing yield is a primary objective in all programs. Grain yield depends, in part, on the number of panicles per unit area, the number of fertile florets per panicle, and grain weight per floret. Increases in any or all of these components may help improve yields. Heritable variation exists for each of these components, and breeders may directly or indirectly select for any of them.
There are numerous steps in the development of any novel, desirable plant germplasm. Plant breeding begins with the analysis and definition of problems and weaknesses of the current germplasm, the establishment of program goals, and the definition of specific breeding objectives. The next step is selection (or generation) of germplasm that possess the traits to meet the program goals. The goal is often to combine in a single variety an improved combination of desirable traits from two or more ancestral germplasm lines. These traits may include such things as higher seed yield, resistance to disease or insects, better stems and roots, tolerance to low temperatures, and better agronomic characteristics or grain quality.
The choice of breeding and selection methods depends on the mode of plant reproduction, the heritability of the trait(s) being improved, and the type of seed that is used commercially (e.g., F1 hybrid, versus pure line or inbred cultivars). For highly heritable traits, a choice of superior individual plants evaluated at a single location may sometimes be effective, while for traits with low or more complex heritability, selection is often based on mean values obtained from replicated evaluations of families of related plants. Selection methods include pedigree selection, modified pedigree selection, mass selection, recurrent selection, and combinations of these methods.
The complexity of inheritance influences the choice of breeding method. Backcross breeding is used to transfer one or a few favorable genes for a highly heritable trait into a desirable cultivar. This approach has been used extensively for breeding disease-resistant cultivars. Various recurrent selection techniques are used to improve quantitatively-inherited traits controlled by numerous genes. The use of recurrent selection in self-pollinating crops depends on the ease of pollination, the frequency of successful hybrids from each pollination, and the number of hybrid offspring from each successful cross.
Promising advanced breeding lines are thoroughly tested and compared to appropriate standards in environments representative of the commercial target area(s), typically for three or more years. The best lines become candidates for new commercial cultivars; those still deficient in a few traits may be used as parents to produce new populations for further selection.
These processes, which lead ultimately to marketing and distribution of new cultivars or hybrids, typically take 8 to 12 years from the time of the first cross; they may further rely on (and be delayed by) the development of improved breeding lines as precursors. Development of new cultivars and hybrids is a time-consuming process that requires precise forward planning and efficient use of resources. There are never assurances of a successful outcome.
A particularly difficult task is the identification of individual plants that are, indeed, genetically superior. A plant's phenotype results from a complex interaction of genetics and environment. One method for identifying a genetically superior plant is to observe its performance relative to other experimental plants and to a widely grown standard cultivar raised in an identical environment. Repeated observations from multiple locations can help provide a better estimate of its genetic worth.
The goal of rice breeding is to develop new, unique, and superior rice cultivars and hybrids. The breeder initially selects and crosses two or more parental lines, followed by self-pollination and selection, producing many new genetic combinations. The breeder can generate billions of different genetic combinations via crossing, selfing, and mutation breeding. The traditional breeder has no direct control at the molecular level. Therefore, two traditional breeders working independently of one another will never develop the same line, or even very similar lines, with the same traits.
Each year, the plant breeder selects germplasm to advance to the next generation. This germplasm is grown under different geographical, climatic, and soil conditions. Further selections are then made, during and at the end of the growing season. The resulting cultivars (or hybrids) and their characteristics are inherently unpredictable. This is because the traditional breeder's selection occurs in unique environments, with no control at the molecular level, and with potentially billions of different possible genetic combinations being generated. A breeder cannot predict the final resulting line, except possibly in a very gross and generic fashion. Further, the same breeder may not produce the same cultivar twice, even starting with the same parental lines, using the same selection techniques. This uncontrollable variation results in substantial effort and expenditures in developing superior new rice cultivars (or hybrids); and makes each new cultivar (or hybrid) novel and unpredictable.
The selection of superior hybrid crosses is conducted slightly differently. Hybrid seed is typically produced by manual crosses between selected male-fertile parents or by using genetic male sterility systems. These hybrids are typically selected for single gene traits that unambiguously indicate that a plant is indeed an F1 hybrid that has inherited traits from both presumptive parents, particularly the male parent (since rice normally self-fertilizes). Such traits might include, for example, a semi dwarf plant type, pubescence, awns, or apiculus color. Additional data on parental lines, as well as the phenotype of the hybrid, influence the breeder's decision whether to continue with a particular hybrid cross or an analogous cross, using related parental lines.
Pedigree breeding and recurrent selection breeding methods are sometimes used to develop cultivars from breeding populations. These breeding methods combine desirable traits from two or more cultivars or other germplasm sources into breeding pools from which cultivars are developed by selfing and selection of desired phenotypes. The new cultivars are evaluated to determine commercial potential.
Pedigree breeding is often used to improve self-pollinating crops. Two parents possessing favorable, complementary traits are crossed to produce F1 plants. An F2 population is produced by selfing one or more F1s. Selection of the superior individual plants may begin in the F2 (or later) generation. Then, beginning in the F3 (or other subsequent) generation, individual plants are selected. Replicated testing of panicle rows from the selected plants can begin in the F4 (or other subsequent) generation, both to fix the desired traits and to improve the effectiveness of selection for traits that have low heritability. At an advanced stage of inbreeding (e.g., F6 or F7), the best lines or mixtures of phenotypically-similar lines are tested for potential release as new cultivars.
Mass and recurrent selection methods can also be used to improve populations of either self- or cross-pollinating crops. A genetically variable population of heterozygous individuals is either identified or created by intercrossing several different parents. The best offspring plants are selected based on individual superiority, outstanding progeny, or excellent combining ability. The selected plants are intercrossed to produce a new population in which further cycles of selection are continued.
Backcross breeding is often used to transfer genes for a simply inherited, highly heritable trait into a desirable homozygous cultivar or inbred line, which is the recurrent parent. The source of the trait to be transferred is called the donor parent. The resulting plant should ideally have the attributes of the recurrent parent (e.g., cultivar) and the desired new trait transferred from the donor parent. After the initial cross, individuals possessing the desired donor phenotype (e.g., disease resistance, insect resistance, herbicide tolerance) are selected and repeatedly crossed (backcrossed) to the recurrent parent.
The single-seed descent procedure in the strict sense refers to planting a segregating population, harvesting a sample of one seed per plant, and using the one-seed sample to plant the next generation. When the population has been advanced from the F2 generation to the desired level of inbreeding, the plants from which lines are derived will each trace to different F2 individuals. The number of plants in a population declines each generation due to failure of some seeds to germinate or some plants to produce at least one seed. As a result, not all of the F2 plants originally sampled in the population will be represented by a progeny when generation advance is completed.
In a multiple-seed procedure, the breeder harvests one or more seeds from each plant in a population and threshes them together to form a bulk. Part of the bulk is used to plant the next generation and part is put in reserve. The procedure has been referred to as modified single-seed descent or the pod-bulk technique. The multiple-seed procedure has been used to save labor at harvest. It is considerably faster to thresh panicles by machine than to remove one seed from each by hand as in the single-seed procedure. The multiple-seed procedure also makes it possible to plant the same number of seeds from a population for each generation of inbreeding. Enough seeds are harvested to compensate for plants that did not germinate or produce seed.
Other common and less-common breeding methods are known and used in the art. See, e.g., R. W. Allard, Principles of Plant Breeding (John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, N.Y., 1967); N. W. Simmonds, Principles of Crop Improvement (Longman, London, 1979); J. Sneep et al., Plant Breeding Perspectives (Pudoc, Wageningen, 1979); and W. R. Fehr, Principles of Cultivar Development: Theory and Technique (Macmillan Pub., New York, N.Y., 1987).
Proper testing should detect any major faults and establish the level of superiority or improvement over current cultivars. In addition to showing superior performance, there must be a demand for a new cultivar or hybrid that is compatible with industry standards or that creates a new market. The introduction of a new cultivar or hybrid may incur additional costs to the seed producer, the grower, processor and consumer for such things as special advertising and marketing, altered seed and commercial production practices, and new product utilization. The testing preceding release of a new cultivar or hybrid should take into consideration research and development costs as well as technical superiority of the final cultivar or hybrid.
In recent years, a few herbicide-tolerant rice varieties and hybrids have been successfully introduced to the market. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,545,822; 5,736,629; 5,773,703; 5,773,704; 5,952,553; 6,274,796; 6,943,280; 7,019,196; 7,345,221; 7,399,905; and 7,495,153; published International Patent Applications WO 00/27182 and WO 01/85970; and published U.S. patent application 2007/0061915. These herbicide-tolerant rice plants are resistant to or tolerant of herbicides that normally inhibit the growth of rice plants. Thus, rice growers now can control weeds that previously were difficult to control in rice fields, including “red rice.” “Red rice” is a weedy relative of cultivated rice, and had previously been difficult to control because it actually belongs to the same species as cultivated rice. Only recently, when herbicide tolerant rice became available, did it become possible to control red rice with herbicides in fields where cultivated rice was growing contemporaneously. There are currently only a very limited number of herbicide-tolerant cultivars and hybrids available commercially. There is a continuing need for new herbicide-tolerant cultivars and hybrids—that is, rice plants that not only express a desired herbicide-tolerant phenotype, but that also possess other agronomically desirable characteristics. Additional herbicide-tolerant cultivars and hybrids will provide rice growers greater flexibility in planting and managing crops.